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South Australia - May 2002 |
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Select
the date from the list shown below for this months tip |
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6th |
I was
reminded recently that with mushroom season is here and that you must cut
mushrooms to harvest them and not pull them up. Pulling them is akin to
harvesting flowers by pulling the shrub up. If the mycelia or root system
is removed you have effectively stopped the mushrooms from coming again in
that patch, so use a knife to collect your mushies. |
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13th
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Right now is a good time to plant and
immediately feed cabbages. I was recently reminded that cabbages thrive on
beer slops, as do some other plants in the vegetable patch, but the price of
beer even after Canberra’s recent fillip discount, is enough to keep using
superphosphate for most gardeners.
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20th |
Citrus
plants of most types are looking a little jaded at present. The dry
subsoil brings on the signs of lime-induced-chlorosis (LIC) caused by the
iron in the soil getting locked up and so unavailable to your plants due
to the alkalinity of the soil. The remedy is to water in a solution of
iron chelate (pronounced kilate) to the root zone. Although it can be used
as a foliar spray on very alkaline soils, it marks the leaves. Anyhow that
turns the yellowing leaves a bright green in days and may need to be done
again in late spring and mid summer.
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27th
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A
reader at Springfield is considering an avenue of the ‘James Stirling’
Pittosporum and had heard that they could be susceptible to a fatal virus.
After asking around the nursery trade, no one can confirm that, but
several agreed that ‘James Stirling’ had a rugged summer and did not
cope with the heat back in February very well.
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